SOCCER: MLS teams surely feeling the pressure

Pressure is trying to become the first nation to win three major championships in succession in five years - after winning none in the 44 before that - as Spain did so authoritatively in Sunday's comprehensive 4-0 Euro 2012 win over Italy.

Pressure is scoring a dozen goals and conceding just one as Spain did - the fewest ever by a champion of a major tournament - en route to the Euro 2012 title.

And pressure is performing with such panache and remorseless possession, as Spain so assuredly did, that commentators are moved to compare the team with a unit that arguably is still the best ever - 1970 World Cup-winner Brazil, which included Pele, Jairzinho and Rivelino.

Comparatively speaking in MLS - a league that has periodically flirted with boasting almost as many playoff spots as there are teams during its relatively brief history - pressure is not generally regarded as a mitigating factor in a team's performance.

But Galaxy veteran Landon Donovan observed Monday this season has proved somewhat different.

"When we talk about the Western Conference and how difficult it is, it has never been like this," the 12-year MLS veteran said. "There's less spots now for teams to make the playoffs, there's more coaching positions, but it's becoming more and more competitive and owners are now engaged in a way they never have before so there's more pressure; they are not OK accepting poor results."

With the addition of Montreal this season, MLS has 19 teams - its most ever - competing for 10 playoff spots, the same number as last year.

But there are no more wild-card spots regardless of conference. Now the top five in each conference qualify for the playoffs, but the fourth- and fifth-place teams play a one-off game with the winner advancing to the final four.

These tweaks - and what's at stake - arguably have made for more erratic moments this season than we have seen in the past, even from perennial contenders.

The defending MLS champion Galaxy, who play the struggling Philadelphia Union on Independence Day in a game followed by one of Southern California's largest fireworks displays that usually attracts one of the biggest crowds of the regular season, are prime examples of that.

The Galaxy are coming off one of the most disappointing losses of their disappointing season - a 4-3 defeat Saturday to MLS-leading San Jose that came after L.A. somehow managed to blow a two-goal lead.

The loss also came after three consecutive MLS wins, including one on the road against always-challenging Real Salt Lake, which in turn was preceded by a run of eight games without a win.

Real Salt Lake dropped a 2-0 loss Saturday to the Columbus Crew to make it three games without a win, the first time that's happened since the early days of coach Jason Kreis' tenure five years ago. Before that run, RSL was unbeaten in six MLS games.

The Seattle Sounders should have capitalized on that, especially after beginning the season with the best start in franchise history, but have gone eight games without an MLS win. That has coach Sigi Schmid, famously fired by the Galaxy while the team led MLS, under pressure from the biggest crowds in MLS and its demanding ownership group, which includes director Joe Roth and comedian Drew Carey.

The club that did take advantage was the San Jose Earthquakes, hopeless the past few years, but now suddenly resurgent - albeit with games on a knife-edge.

Going into last weekend's contest against the Galaxy the 'Quakes had scored a stunning 14 goals in the 74th minute or later in games en route to a Western Conference-leading 11-3-3 record. Without those heart-stopping goals, that record would have been far less impressive. Now that's pressure.

And that's just out West, but you get the idea.

Even the best teams are veering from one extreme to another, while poor ones, such as 2-10-3 Toronto, are even more hapless than usual it seems because of the increased competition.

That latter description would include the 3-9-2 Union.

Former coach Peter Nowak seemingly worked overtime this year to gut a team he had carefully built in the previous one in perhaps the biggest career coaching meltdown ever seen in MLS.

Nowak alienated fans and management by inexplicably casting off fan favorites and the team's best players in moves never fully explained, but appeared tied to a power grab of sorts to establish complete control over every facet of the team. Did pressure prompt the coaching career suicide?

Whatever it was, no team can take anything for granted this year.

Comfortable, successful runs have been reversed in short order - and then resumed. Slumps have become more costly.

MLS isn't Euro 2012. Games are still more likely to be decided by defensive errors than offensive brilliance.

But there is a tension and less predictability to MLS this season than we've ever seen before. It's continually getting closer to that ideal of games that really matter between teams people really care about, as the MLS suits like to say.

That's pressure - and it can only be good for the future of the domestic game.